UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Security Council members on Wednesday debated a U.S.-Russian compromise that would delay plans for an overhaul of U.N. sanctions against Iraq but pledge to revise the embargoes in six months.
The U.N. oil-for-food humanitarian program, which contains sanctions regulations, expires on Friday. The program will be extended on the same terms in a U.N. Security Council vote that could come as early as Thursday and include a commitment to change sanctions procedures by June 1.
The compromise hinged on Russia's approval of a new list of goods that would need a Security Council review to make sure no items for military use were included, a key element of last May's U.S.-British proposal to revise the sanctions.
In return, the United States and Britain agreed to look again at gaps in a December 1999 resolution that paved the way toward suspending the trade sanctions after Iraq allowed U.N. weapons inspectors to resume their work.
``We are satisfied,'' said Russia's U.N. ambassador, Sergei Lavrov.
``We think we can reach agreement on this,'' added State Department spokesman Richard Boucher in Washington. But ``we don't want to count our chickens before they hatch.''
Tunisia was holding up adoption of the resolution, wanting language that would allow it to return to Iraq four commercial aircraft that Baghdad flew out of the country before the Gulf War began on Jan. 17, 1991.
The United States and Britain have tried three times since June to revise the oil-for-food program with the aim of streamlining imports of civilian goods to Iraq but tightening restrictions on items that can be used for military purpose